Spiritual Realization - Part 10

Friday, September 14, 2012

This is the concluding part of this series.

The quality of meditation depends upon certain factors such as type of awareness, intensity of awareness, experience, animate perception, duration, level of detachment, positive outlook and the final transformation. In a determined person, all this happens in quick succession. The transition point of being an aspirant to a yogi is very significant. While, you were an aspirant, you used to go to the Lord as your ultimate refuge. As a yogi, you have nobody as your refuge, as you have realized the Brahman, and nobody is there beyond Brahman. This grand finale will not come to you that easily. You have to come to this stage after undergoing several transformations. In the beginning, you were engrossed in your ego. Then you became a devotee, worshiping the Lord in His visualized forms. You were too religious at that time. At one point of time, you thought that your religious pursuits will liberate you. Transcending your religious state would have been extremely painful to you, as that was the stage, where the real transformation had taken place.

During your final stages of liberation, self affirmations will be of great help to you. While making affirmations, your mind plays a very significant role. All the affirmations are made through mind. When affirmations are made consciously, your mind ensures that affirmations are implemented. You cannot affirm without faith. Absolute faith ensures that your affirmations are carried through to their logical ends. For example, you have to repeatedly affirm that “I am the Brahman”. It is only for becoming Brahman, you have been pursuing spiritual path. What you are contemplating for tomorrow, affirm that now. The process of transformation will be much easier. You have to always remember that realisation has to happen only in your mind. When you make your mind to repeatedly affirm that you are the Brahman, mind gets perfectly conditioned to realize that you are Brahman. Brahman is not someone who is going to appear before you saying that He is the Lord. Brahman always lies within you. You are only trying to know Him and always want to be with Him.

Your third eye chakra is a very powerful tool available to you to control your mind during meditation. Concentrate on your third eye chakra and begin to look deep within. Your pineal gland lies behind the central point of your eye brows, deep inside the brain. This is known as the third eye or the metaphysical eye. It is also believed that the soul is seated here. Third eye is also known as the seat of the soul. This may appear in contravention of the theory that soul lies in a cave in the heart chakra, but seat of the soul in deep behind the third eye is very close scientific proof.

Pineal gland can be activated by light energy. When you focus your consciousness towards the pineal gland, it gets activated by the energy. It secretes melanin during sleep and during deep meditative stages. Melanin controls the aging process. Pineal gland works in coordination with hypothalamus, a nervous organ located at the base of the brain. Together they control biorhythms and physiological needs of the body. When your quality of meditation improves, you will be able to connect your consciousness to higher frequencies. This happens due to the awakening of your pineal gland. The pineal gland is awakened not only by focusing your inner energy on your third eye, but also by drawl of cosmic energy through your crown chakra and medulla oblongata, the back head chakra.

Apart from pineal gland, pituitary gland is another gland that helps you in reaching a higher level of consciousness. Proper concentration on your third eye during your meditation establishes a well balanced relationship between your soul, pineal gland and pituitary gland. If this connection is well established, the soul within begins to illuminate. This illumination happens due to the activated power of kundalini, drawal of cosmic energy from the cosmos through your crown and back head chakras and internal energy produced while concentrating on your third eye.

When all these factors work in a coordinated manner, your egoism begins to dissolve and the level of your consciousness becomes purer. This leads to a positive situation where you gradually lose your identity with your organs of perception and action; and faculties of cognition and action. When your sensory organs are muted, your mind does not receive any materialistic inputs. Already your ego is dissolved. What remains is your mind, intellect and consciousness. Mind is a necessity as realisation of the Self takes place only through the mind. Mind is now not in a position to get afflicted, as you have plugged the sensory inputs to the mind. However, you continue to perform your normal activities like walking, eating and sleeping. Since you have dissolved your ego, an evolvement from you intellect, your mind is not concerned with your actions, as you do not have attachment to any of your actions. Your mind has now turned serene. Intellect is required, as the intellect is the medium through which your soul and consciousness are connected.

You have now reached a stage where you have almost removed all the sheaths covering the soul, making it visible to your mind. Its luminosity could not be perceived by your mind as there was darkness of ignorance beclouding your mind. Through meditative techniques, you have now removed all the obscurities around your soul. You are now in a condition to realise the light of your soul, its true nature. At this stage you can feel the changes happening in you. Your concern for others becomes more predominant. You begin to appreciate the beauty of the Nature. You are unable to tolerate the sufferings of others. Your self love has transformed into universal love. You truly realise your inherent values. Now you understand you are That.

THE EPILOGUE

You have just gone through both the theoretical and practical aspect of realising the Brahman within your own self. For many, spiritual unfoldment does not begin due to various factors. To understand spirituality both theory and practice are necessary. Both complement each other, very significantly. You cannot proceed to a destination without understanding its topography. You should know the route to reach the destination. You should have a proper transport to reach the destination. You should have the inclination to reach the destination and finally you should make efforts to reach the destination. Unless all these factors work together, you cannot reach the destination. Having born as one among the vast humanity, it should be your endeavor to stop your future births, in your own interest. Though birth does not necessarily means pains and sufferings, majority of us undergo sufferings either through body or mind. Undoubtedly, one also experiences traces of joy and happiness here and there.

Realising the Self or the Brahman has to happen within your mental faculty. Inherent nature of humanity is to get associated with sensory organs. You listen to music, you relish delicious dishes, you love beautiful scenery, you need a comfortable home, you need a car to travel, you look for lucrative employment, you look for an excellent spouse, you need children, etc. Your needs are not limited. If you have one thing today, you are sure to think of something else tomorrow and yet another thing day after tomorrow. Your mind always wanting a change, as it never gets satisfied. Your mind is always avaricious. Your ego makes your unsatiated desires to manifest in huge proportions. In order to fulfill your endless desires, you work beyond your physical and mental capacities and become completely exhausted. Your routine life revolves around only two aspects, active state and passive state. Since you are so accustomed to shunting between these two types of lives, you presume that you do not have time to look into your inner self, the very source of your existence. It is not that you want to deliberately miss out the source of your existence. You miss out because either you not have time or inclination. Even if you have both, you are not able to understand the means by which you can realise your inner self. Everything appear complicated to you as there are too many philosophies and jargons.

True spiritual aspiration is rare to find in the present times. Even for those who really want to pursue the path, they are confronted with too many concepts, too many theories, too many philosophies, too many scriptures and too many pseudo spiritual masters. Spirituality has now turned out to be an active and affluent industry. This book has made an attempt to explain in a simple language without resorting to usage of complicated and incomprehensible words, driving home only the essential features that are necessary to acquire spiritual knowledge. The second part of this book explained how the knowledge acquired in the first part can be practiced. The book has also tried to explain how our inner psychic organs and external sensory organs are interrelated to each other, to prove the point of interdependence. God has ensured that every act of the universe is counter checked and approved by another aspect of creation. Not a single organ can function on its own, be it external or internal. For example, your eyes cannot function independently. They have to communicate to the mind and organs of actions wait for its instructions. Mind alone cannot decide on the inputs received from eyes. Mind has to depend upon intellect and consciousness. Again your consciousness is influenced by your ego and ego in influenced by intellect. The process of interdependence is unending. Spirituality is nothing but understanding this concept of interdependence and the role played by each of the interdependent apparatuses. After acquiring knowledge about these apparatus, the next step is to understand the Creator, the inner Self, the very source of your existence, through meditatio8un.

Having now armed with complete knowledge, you have to put your first step forward towards the Brahman, the Creator of the universe. For your last step, you do not need any guidance and help as He Himself illuminates your path. Once you realise Him, you do not consider yourself as someone different from Him. You repeatedly affirm “I am That” and ultimately, you become That.

THIS SERIES ON SPIRITUAL REALIZATION IS CONCLUDED. THE NEXT SERIES WILL BE ON “UNDERSTANDING PHILOSOPHIES”.

Sir, I heard Shridi Sai baba has given Brahma Gnana to many of his devotees.Is that mean they will get same Gnana as Baba? I feel Disciplines should be one step down of Guru even though they are realised souls.Please advise .

Brahmajñānā is knowing Brahman or the knowledge required to know Brahman. Brahmajñāna does not differ from person to person and it is the same for everyone. When it is coming to the knowledge Brahman, everyone is same and there is no difference between Guru or his disciple.

It depends upon the Guru. It is said that Guru and Brahman are the same. But Guru with uppercase G should be used with great respect. Not everyone whom we come across is Guru.

Guru will not accept his disciples' karmas. Karma has to be endured and there is no escape from that. With the able guidance from Guru one can stop accruing further karmas if he or she surrenders to Brahman. How to surrender to Brahman is taught by a Guru. Danger times are the manifestations of one's karmic account. Even Brahman does not stop the effects karmas in one's life.

Thanks Sir.I have a another query.What about those souls who attained various Mukthi?( like sArUpya ,sAmIpya,sAlokya). Are they are self -realised ones? or they attain Mukthis with great devotion to our Lord even though they are not self-realized.

Liberation is of four types: Sālokya, co-existence with the Lord in His world. Sārūpya, attaining the same form as that of the Lord. Sāmīpya, proximity as that of the Lord. Sāyujya, absorption into the Lord Himself. The first one progressively leads to the last one. But the thought process of identifying the self with the Lord (sāyujya) leads to fast track emancipation.

Mukti is too a wider term and is often mentioned as cessation from transmigration. It is a gradual process and directly related to one's level of devotion. As long as duality persists, liberation cannot be attained. When duality is dissolved, you become Brahman. Whatever you have mentioned are different stages of one's Love for the Divine. These stages are certainly related to different stages of liberation. In the state of sāyujya, your merge with the Divine and you are no reborn.

Yes, they are Self-realized ones, but not yet merged with Him except the stage of sāyujya, which is the final stage of liberation. All these stages can be experienced while living with our gross bodies.

Turya is the fourth state of consciousness, the other three being awake, dream and deep sleep. Turya stage transcends all the above three stages by bundling them out. The level of consciousness at turya stage is very close to the stage of blissfulness, derived from experiment and observation rather than theory. Turyātīta is the stage where one’s consciousness transcends turya stage. In this stage of blissful consciousness, the Brahman is realised where one feels that “I am That” or aham brahmāsmi. The final stage of merging into the Brahman is kaivalya, when a soul ceases to transmigrate.There is nothing beyond this. What happens if one transcends turya state? The self is replaced by SELF. This transformative realization happens in a fraction of a second where near death-like situation is experienced. One is not the same person after that ‘second’.The bliss is the penultimate stage of the final salvation. Such a sort of bliss can be experienced only during the last stages of merger into the Brahman, the final stages of liberation, the state of kaivalya.

They are sālokya, sarūpa, samībha and sāyujya. Beyond this is kaivalya. Sālokya is the stage where one performs ritual worship, worshipping idols or portraits of gods. In sarūpa he leaves idol worship and does not differentiate himself from god. In samībha he goes near the god and in sāyujya stage he merges with god. These are the stages of one’s consciousness that finally lead to kaivalya. One has to progress from one stage to another and this progression happens depending upon the level of spirituality. By being spiritual does not mean one has to be religious. Spirituality transcends religious affinities, though religion forms the foundation of spirituality.

You can any number of questions, but it is difficult to answer sensitive questions. You can always write to me through email.

1. Technically there is no difference between the two. Self-realization is about realization of the Self within. Once you realize the Self within, you will automatically look at the material world through the eyes of the Self. In that stage, all dyads and triads are totally annihilated.

2. Sālokya stage is like elementary school and kaivalya is masters. When we are doing masters, obviously we cannot go back to elementary school to pursue our studies. The journey from sālokya to kaivalya will have many many hurdles, and the powerful hurdle is our inability to move away from dualism to non-dualism. Through dualism, one can become a great devotee; but he cannot attain liberation. Liberation can happen only through non-dualistic mind.

We have to also remember that without studying in elementary school, we cannot do masters. Dualism acts as foundation for our spiritual path, but this does not give liberation.

There is no connection between yajñopavīta and spiritual advancement. There are views that one should discard yajñopavīta after initiation into Ṣoḍaśī mantra. Such decisions are made either by one's Guru or one's own mind.